can i control the number of text characters in a cell that is formatted as
text? i have an entry that gives ##### and no matter how big i make the
column or row it will not allow my text to fit. what do i need to do? i
really would like to fill the entire cell with text but there seems to be
some sort of border that will not allow it to be competely full.

It could mean a few things.

1. The columnwidth is too narrow to show the number.

Widen the column or change the font size of that cell. Or change the
numberformat to General.

2. You have a date/time in that cell and it's negative

Don't use negative dates. If excel was helping you, it may have
changed the format to a date. Change it back to General (or some
other number format).

If you need to see negative date/times:
Tools|options|Calculation Tab|and check 1904 date system
(but this can cause trouble--watch what happens to your dates
and watch what happens when you copy|paste dates to a different
workbook that doesn't use this setting)

3. You have a lot of text in the cell, the cell is formatted as Text.

Format the cell as general.

4. You really have ###'s in that cell.

Clean up that cell.

5. You have # in a cell, but it's format is set to Fill.

Change the format
(format|cells|alignment tab|horizontal box, change it to General.

i2meek wrote:

can i control the number of text characters in a cell that is formatted as
text? i have an entry that gives ##### and no matter how big i make the
column or row it will not allow my text to fit. what do i need to do? i
really would like to fill the entire cell with text but there seems to be
some sort of border that will not allow it to be competely full.

--

Dave Peterson

1. as i said in my post no matter how big i make the columnwidth, it still
shows ###

2. as i said in my post the cell is formatted text besides there is no
date/time in the cell, no numbers in the cell, nothing with a negative value
is in the cell.

3. YES - I do!! formatting general worked !!! but, why won't it let me have
a lot of text in a cell that is formatted text? Is there a "boundary" or
"cell margin" setting that i can change? Can I, and if so how can I, fill an
entire cell with as much text as will fit in the size of the cell?

4. Come on, people really . . ., never mind.

5. ?? nope but now will be looking into "Fill" format. Is that just what is
automatically formatted to a cell when you use the fill command? I'll try it
and see.

Thanks for your quick and succesful response - much appreciated!



"Dave Peterson" wrote:

It could mean a few things.

1. The columnwidth is too narrow to show the number.

Widen the column or change the font size of that cell. Or change the
numberformat to General.

2. You have a date/time in that cell and it's negative

Don't use negative dates. If excel was helping you, it may have
changed the format to a date. Change it back to General (or some
other number format).

If you need to see negative date/times:
Tools|options|Calculation Tab|and check 1904 date system
(but this can cause trouble--watch what happens to your dates
and watch what happens when you copy|paste dates to a different
workbook that doesn't use this setting)

3. You have a lot of text in the cell, the cell is formatted as Text.

Format the cell as general.

4. You really have ###'s in that cell.

Clean up that cell.

5. You have # in a cell, but it's format is set to Fill.

Change the format
(format|cells|alignment tab|horizontal box, change it to General.

i2meek wrote:

can i control the number of text characters in a cell that is formatted as
text? i have an entry that gives ##### and no matter how big i make the
column or row it will not allow my text to fit. what do i need to do? i
really would like to fill the entire cell with text but there seems to be
some sort of border that will not allow it to be competely full.

--

Dave Peterson

Each of those items were possible causes--I never expected all to be true for
you. (I was betting on the format, though.)

And formatting the cell as fill is different than filling a range.

There is a problem with text that is between 255 and 1024 characters long in
cells that are formatted as text. Strings less than 256 or greater than 1024
characters work ok in cells formatted as text.

Only MS knows the real reason why.

i2meek wrote:

1. as i said in my post no matter how big i make the columnwidth, it still
shows ###

2. as i said in my post the cell is formatted text besides there is no
date/time in the cell, no numbers in the cell, nothing with a negative value
is in the cell.

3. YES - I do!! formatting general worked !!! but, why won't it let me have
a lot of text in a cell that is formatted text? Is there a "boundary" or
"cell margin" setting that i can change? Can I, and if so how can I, fill an
entire cell with as much text as will fit in the size of the cell?

4. Come on, people really . . ., never mind.

5. ?? nope but now will be looking into "Fill" format. Is that just what is
automatically formatted to a cell when you use the fill command? I'll try it
and see.

Thanks for your quick and succesful response - much appreciated!

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

It could mean a few things.

1. The columnwidth is too narrow to show the number.

Widen the column or change the font size of that cell. Or change the
numberformat to General.

2. You have a date/time in that cell and it's negative

Don't use negative dates. If excel was helping you, it may have
changed the format to a date. Change it back to General (or some
other number format).

If you need to see negative date/times:
Tools|options|Calculation Tab|and check 1904 date system
(but this can cause trouble--watch what happens to your dates
and watch what happens when you copy|paste dates to a different
workbook that doesn't use this setting)

3. You have a lot of text in the cell, the cell is formatted as Text.

Format the cell as general.

4. You really have ###'s in that cell.

Clean up that cell.

5. You have # in a cell, but it's format is set to Fill.

Change the format
(format|cells|alignment tab|horizontal box, change it to General.

i2meek wrote:

can i control the number of text characters in a cell that is formatted as
text? i have an entry that gives ##### and no matter how big i make the
column or row it will not allow my text to fit. what do i need to do? i
really would like to fill the entire cell with text but there seems to be
some sort of border that will not allow it to be competely full.

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson

OK - that explains it - thank you very much - extremely helpful!!

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

Each of those items were possible causes--I never expected all to be true for
you. (I was betting on the format, though.)

And formatting the cell as fill is different than filling a range.

There is a problem with text that is between 255 and 1024 characters long in
cells that are formatted as text. Strings less than 256 or greater than 1024
characters work ok in cells formatted as text.

Only MS knows the real reason why.

i2meek wrote:

1. as i said in my post no matter how big i make the columnwidth, it still
shows ###

2. as i said in my post the cell is formatted text besides there is no
date/time in the cell, no numbers in the cell, nothing with a negative value
is in the cell.

3. YES - I do!! formatting general worked !!! but, why won't it let me have
a lot of text in a cell that is formatted text? Is there a "boundary" or
"cell margin" setting that i can change? Can I, and if so how can I, fill an
entire cell with as much text as will fit in the size of the cell?

4. Come on, people really . . ., never mind.

5. ?? nope but now will be looking into "Fill" format. Is that just what is
automatically formatted to a cell when you use the fill command? I'll try it
and see.

Thanks for your quick and succesful response - much appreciated!

"Dave Peterson" wrote:

It could mean a few things.

1. The columnwidth is too narrow to show the number.

Widen the column or change the font size of that cell. Or change the
numberformat to General.

2. You have a date/time in that cell and it's negative

Don't use negative dates. If excel was helping you, it may have
changed the format to a date. Change it back to General (or some
other number format).

If you need to see negative date/times:
Tools|options|Calculation Tab|and check 1904 date system
(but this can cause trouble--watch what happens to your dates
and watch what happens when you copy|paste dates to a different
workbook that doesn't use this setting)

3. You have a lot of text in the cell, the cell is formatted as Text.

Format the cell as general.

4. You really have ###'s in that cell.

Clean up that cell.

5. You have # in a cell, but it's format is set to Fill.

Change the format
(format|cells|alignment tab|horizontal box, change it to General.

i2meek wrote:

can i control the number of text characters in a cell that is formatted as
text? i have an entry that gives ##### and no matter how big i make the
column or row it will not allow my text to fit. what do i need to do? i
really would like to fill the entire cell with text but there seems to be
some sort of border that will not allow it to be competely full.

--

Dave Peterson


--

Dave Peterson